


not monsters

by Ocearna



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: Gen, liberties taken with box weapon theories, reborn taught tsuna everything he knows including RESPECT GDI, tsuna gets mad, warning: discussions about the sex industry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-02
Updated: 2020-05-02
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:48:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23965657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ocearna/pseuds/Ocearna
Summary: “We may be mafioso,” Tsuna said softly, every eye in the room focused on him, “but we are not monsters. It is our duty to protect those in our care, no matter who they are or what job they do."Not long after taking over from the Ninth, Tsuna struggles with not being respected by other Dons. He and Natsu come up with a plan and find the perfect target in a young Don with Stupid ideas.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 181





	not monsters

**Author's Note:**

> aaaaa this is another "posting before losing my nerve". I would usually avoid talking about things like the sex industry because... well, I feel like I don't know enough to do justice to the topic, but it seemed like something Tsuna would get angry about, so here we are. let me know if there's any other/better tags I should use!

The meeting had already been going for two hours when Tsuna started to lose his patience. It should have been over and done with by then, and probably would have been if the Ninth had been running it. But Tsuna had only taken over meetings like this a couple of months before and he didn’t yet have the kind of reputation - or the temperament, really - to force people to behave. 

Of course, he could have asked one of his allies to help out. Among the many Dons and heads of various other mafia organisations gathered at this meeting, he thankfully had some support in the Dino and Xanxus. Even Enma was present, though he hadn’t had the time to build up a reputation yet either. 

But Tsuna refused to ask for help, even subtly. Reborn and the Ninth had decided he was ready for this, and damn it he wasn’t going to let them down!

Moving his hands so they rested in full view on the top of the table, Tsuna sent a thought and a small strand of his Sky Flames to Natsu, where the Flame lion was hidden in his ring. They had come up with a plan a week before, though Tsuna had hoped to not use it just yet. He also hoped it worked correctly because, well. It was a little dangerous. 

Tsuna had been playing dangerous games for years by now though, so that wasn’t anything new.

As planned, Natsu used the Flames to rattle the ring, making Tsuna’s hand shake slightly. Tsuna glanced down at it briefly, acting surprised, but quickly place his other hand over the hand with the ring and turned his attention back to the argument happening at the other end of the table. His ring continued to rattle occasionally and Tsuna kept pretending he didn’t notice. He did, however, notice the glances he was starting to get from the other people in the room, starting with Xanxus who was seated to his left at the long table. Until--

“Don Vongola, apologies, but is something wrong?” asked Dino from a couple of seats down. His tone was polite and a little deferential, his use of Tsuna’s title necessary because of the very official setting. Tsuna could tell the worry was real though, and he could see similar concern in Enma’s expression and amusement and intrigue in Xanxus’s. 

The other conversations mostly stuttered to a stop, those involved turning to stare at Tsuna. Tsuna let the embarrassment of being the focus of the room turn his cheeks a little bit red and sent Dino a small reassuring smile. 

“Ah, no, I’m fine. Thank you, Don Cavallone,” Tsuna replied. Of course, Natsu chose that exact moment to shake the ring again, pulling on even more of Tsuna’s Flames so Tsuna’s hand was almost yanked to the side with the movement.

Xanxus started chuckling darkly, carelessly swirling his glass of wine as he stared at Tsuna. “Looks to me like your shitty box animal wants out, trash.”

Tsuna pulled his face into a grimace, clenching his top hand tighter around the other. “Natsu is a little… restless at the moment, yes. It’s fine though. Please don’t let it interrupt the discussions.”

Of course, Dino, ever the animal lover, jumped on that. “You should let it out! Being cooped up in that ring can’t be fun, and I doubt anyone here will mind.” His gaze didn’t move from Tsuna, but his Flames swelled, hanging heavy and warm over the room for a moment before they shrunk back to his body again. It was a subtle but effective way of threatening the room into agreeing with him. Tsuna even saw a man at the far end of the table snap his mouth closed with a fearful look on his face.

“Alright,” Tsuna said as he sent Dino an embarrassed smile then glanced around the room with a contrite look as if apologising for interrupting them all. Then, a small pulse of his Flames and Natsu was appearing over his hand, immediately curling around his palm for scratches. 

Tsuna could see a lot of the people in the room leaning to see around others as they all tried to get a look at the Sky lion. Box weapons were still limited to the Vongola’s tenth generation and a few allies, after all, so most of these people hadn’t seen one yet.

Ever fearless, Xanxus reached out to poke Natsu in the flank, getting a snap of the lion cub’s teeth and a tiny, adorable growl in response. The Varia boss just grinned. “Fucking cute. Nothing like my Bester.”

“Well, they do say box animals reflect their owners,” Dino mused, his tone and expression cheeky. He stretched out a hand too, stopping just before Natsu’s nose. The cub sniffed his hand then leaned in to rub against it happily for a moment before suddenly turning and leaping up onto Tsuna’s shoulder.

Tsuna raised a hand to pet Natsu, feeding it little bits of his Flame with each touch. This was the tricky part, but if they could pull it off…

“Apologies again,” Tsuna said, his expression still saying that he hadn’t meant to interrupt. “Where were we…”

* * *

It only took another half hour for Tsuna’s patience to snap. 

They had been discussing the terms of the Alliance and whether any of them should be changed or removed when someone had jokingly mentioned the “good old days” when apparently certain terms had been a lot laxer. A mention of the weapon trafficking restrictions had led to a comment about _human_ trafficking (which Tsuna couldn’t even articulate a response to because _what_ ) which eventually led to a debate about the rules for how sex workers should be treated.

Tsuna had to fight a blush when those debates started up, but he was thankfully distracted by the way Xanxus started glowering, his eyes starting to flicker orange-red. He tried to keep himself calm by sinking a hand into Natsu’s mane, gentling pushing Sky Flames into the cub, but that ended when he heard:

“Why should we protect them anyway? If they decide to do that kind of work, they can deal with the risks.”

The sound of Xanxus’s wine glass shattering in his hand was a good accompaniment to Tsuna’s hand slamming down on the top of the table. He could feel the Sky Flames in his eyes when he turned his glare on the room, quickly narrowing in on the Don who had spoken. He was young, probably only a couple of years older than Tsuna, and looked spoiled with his designer clothes, perfect hair and soft hands.

“ _What_ did you say?” Tsuna growled, voice gone slightly deeper as he slipped closer to Dying Will Mode. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Xanxus and Dino looking surprised, and further down the table he saw a couple of people hunch back in their seats. He paid them no attention though, completely focused on the idiot who had caught his attention.

Said idiot only stared for a moment, looking absolutely bewildered. Then, like a peacock putting on a show, he puffed up, chest jutting forward and chin tilted up. Tsuna hated him.

“I said, why should we protect them?” The idiot replied, voice strong and not even a hint of repentance in his expression or tone. “If they chose to take up a… profession like that, then they’re choosing to take the risks that come with it. I don’t see why we should waste time and resources on babysitting them when it’s something they’ve decided to do.”

Tsuna’s Flames swelled, snapping around the room with his fury. He felt Xanxus’s rise to match his, the undercurrent of _hatred_ seeming to finally clue the idiot into the fact that he’d said something wrong. And yet, except for a slight furrow of worry in his brow, the young Don continued to sit up proudly, practically radiating righteous belief in what he had said. 

“Do you realise,” Tsuna snarled, “how many of our sex workers only take up that job because they have no other way to get by? How many of them go to each job fearing that their customer will be some kind of predator or psycho?” Tsuna slowly stood, both hands braced on the table in front of him, as his voice became a deep, commanding growl. “Do you know how many crazy, fucked up people there are in the world who think it’s perfectly okay to treat sex workers like they’re not human? Do you ever think about how much our workers _rely_ on our protection to make sure they don’t just become another _statistic!?”_

Half the people in the room were cowering back now, whether from Tsuna’s obvious rage or his furious Flames. The other half were trying to look strong, but Tsuna could see them shrinking away from the stupid young Don. Said boss had finally realised he had said something wrong apparently from the way his face had paled, but his expression also held indignation. 

“T-that’s not the point!” he blustered, voice cracking on the first word. “They know the risks and they chose to do that w-work anyway so--”

“That _is_ the point!” Tsuna yelled, leaning forwards as if to loom over the idiot. “Our job is to _look after_ our people! I don’t care if they’re a Guardian or a beggar if they live in our area our job is to _take care of them!_ If someone has to become a sex worker because they have no other way to survive, then you’ve already _failed_ at your most basic duty so you damn well better look after them in their _work!”_

“But they’re- they’re only sex workers!” the idiot replied.

“They’re _still HUMAN!”_ Tsuna roared and suddenly there was a surge of his Sky Flames and the glowing, growling lion cup on his shoulder started expanding, curling around Tsuna’s body then growing to encompass the whole room. Its head - a massive thing with a long, long snout and far too many teeth and eldritch eyes that stared deep into your soul - reformed in front of the young Don, roaring into his face in an echo of Tsuna’s words. Its body was mostly a mass of formless Sky Flames that stretched from its head to the head of the table, winding once around Tsuna’s body, then curling around the room more like a snake than a lion. Almost everyone was forced to crowd against either the table or the walls, the Sky Flames giving off an almost-dangerous amount of heat.

When it stilled, roar reduced to a rumble, everyone in the room was gaping at the monstrous apparition that was now in their midst, even Tsuna’s closest allies. The idiot who had set off his rage had curled down into his chair, his face white and his whole body shaking, and even his subordinates had retreated to the wall. 

Tsuna was gasping in deep breaths, partly for show and partly because the control he had needed to do that had been exhausting. He didn’t let it show though, instead straightening where he stood and visibly reigning in his breaths and then his Flames. Slowly, Natsu’s roars quietened and the length of his body shortened. Eventually, once he was shorter than the length of the table, Natsu turned away from the idiot Don and floated back to Tsuna, shrinking until, with a _pop_ , it landed on Tsuna’s shoulder in its cub form. Tsuna raised a hand to pet Natsu, using the gesture to keep draining excess Flames out of the box animal.

“We may be mafioso,” Tsuna said softly, every eye in the room focused on him, “but we are not monsters. It is our _duty_ to protect those in our care, no matter who they are or what job they do. As such, none of the restrictions regarding such things will be relaxed.” His tone practically dared someone to disagree with him, but after that ordeal no one was game. Even Xanxus was eyeing him with a new look in his eyes - something that looked almost like respect and excitement.

“Now,” Tsuna continued, dropping gracefully into his chair again. “I believe we have a few more things to cover before this meeting can be over…”

**Author's Note:**

> in the anime they say something about Natsu raging when Tsuna first unleashes him and how doing it too much will break the box weapon, but I'm running with the theory that Natsu has some kinda bigger form (like Uri but crazy) that's partway to what we saw in that ep. so here, assume Natsu looks slightly more normal - only one bottom jaw, for example, not two like in the ep. maybe with front paws but its body becomes just Flames after that. idk >_>
> 
> was tempted to write another scene set after the meeting but I like ending it like this so here's the gist of what that woulda been:
> 
> tsuna, dino, xanxus (and enma):  
> dino: "what the HELL Tsuna???"  
> tsuna: "ahahaha sorry? I figured I should make an example of someone so the other Dons would start respecting me, and I figured out how to use Natsu's other form a couple weeks ago so..."  
> xanxus: "so fucking good brat. could Bester do that?"  
> tsuna: "uhhh, maybe? we could ask Giannini. oh, btw, could you check in on how that idiot runs things? we might need to... clean house a bit"  
> xanxus: *grinning madly* "gladly."
> 
> other dons gossiping:  
> don 1: "what the hell was that???"  
> don 2: "vongola are terrifying, holy hell"  
> don 3: "wait... didn't cavallone say box animals reflect their owners or something?"  
> dons 1 & 2: "...shit"


End file.
